Green thumb, black thumb

Comments on my last post praising my alleged green thumb prompted me to be a little more honest about my indoor gardening skills. Many of my plants are doing really well right now but some of them, like those pictured above, are really suffering.

Last fall I moved all the plants back indoors after it got cold. Note that I said "after" not "before" it got cold. So a few of the less hardy ones were a little worse for wear after their summer growth spurt and subsequent frost damage. After they were inside, some of them thrived while others hated their new locations, plus I kind of neglected them at first.

The project efficiency NY resolution helped because I started watering really regularly. The ones that aren't mostly dead are quite happy, but there are a few with just a handful of green leaves left. I'm hoping they will hang on until May when I can move some outside and move the rest to better spots inside.

My Dracaena bloomed!

I never knew these things would flower in captivity. One day, I was watering it and noticed this huge flowering stalk. It didn't do much for over a week, then one evening we came home and noticed a strange smell. It was this plant!

A brief internet search suggests that this is Dracaena fragans; I'd say that's pretty descriptive. Over about 5-6 days, some of the florets opened each evening and were done by morning. They produced a really strong fragrance, a lilly/rose/honeysuckle blend that started out sort of musky and grew into a powerful perfume that filled our whole apartment. EGM hated it, but I thought it was lovely.

It was fun having this plant seemingly spontaneously flower. I hope it doesn't die now.